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SBC Wants To Switch DSL Format To PPPoE
Mr. Haplo writes: "Looks like SBC's at it again. According to this story, SBC wants to change everyone's DSL connection to PPPoE. The article goes on to say that the California Public Utilities Commission and the ISP Association are filing complaints against SBC and PacBell over this. It doesn't mention anything about SDSL connections, however, so I don't know what they'll do, if anything, about them. They do say that business services would be left alone, though, so I assume this means just about any SDSL services (I hope!). Someone needs to take a baseball bat to SBC's executives."
Me too, and it still blows chunks. The only advantage is not having to use that stupid dialup thing.
When I first try to pull up a web page, it takes a few seconds as the router connects, and then after that it's fine. That's all there is to it.
I bought this new car, and although I have to push it down the street to get it started, once the engine turns over, it's fine.
PPPoE gets rid of one of the features of DSL that has been advertised: ALWAYS ON. Bullshit. PPPoE, no matter how fast the client negotiates, is NOT always on.
Edith Keeler Must Die
From Verizon.
And it doesn't suck.
Millions of /.'ers gasp in astonishment.
I mean, I use a Linksys router that has the PPPoE firmware installed. This means that i have a static IP anyway as the router uses a Keepalive and is never turned off. This is almost no different from DHCP. If your machine is not connected when the address is renewed, you don't get that IP address. Period.
Static IP's I can understand, but the people who really need them can pay for them. *GASP!* Heresy!
Yes, low-cost high bandwidth is what we want, but not necessarily what we will get. Yet. As I'm fond of saying, Joe Q. User who buys Compaqs at Best Buy with WinME installed will think nothing of a PPPoE connection. And that's if he even goes beyond his 53.3K POTS connection.
While my system at home is a cable modem; my coworkers are having lots of problems with our corporate IPSec software if they run PPPoE.
That sounds like you bought crappy software and didn't check it out before you bought it. IPSec works just fine over PPP and PPPoE. In fact, it shouldn't even be messing with the PPP frames, just like it shouldn't be messing with the Ethernet frames. It shouldn't know or care what it is being run over. It playes with TCP frames, nothing else. If it was then it is a problem with the IPSec software, not PPPoE. PPPoX, Ethernet, ATM, etc, should all work at the lowest level, the IPSec should be in the lowest level of the IP stack. Don't blame PPPoE because your software sucks.
By and large I've used PPPoE for about a year now, and have never had a problem doing anything "creative". Maybe you'd just prefer a regualar old, ethernet connection, which is your choice. But no one ever gets what the choose. The system provides you with a routable IP address and a place for the IP Packets to flow through, which is all you really needed to talk to the rest of the world. If you need anything else to be creative, then something is drasticly wrong.
This is nothing compared to what they've done before. I used to work for a regional ISP that resold SWB's DSL. They gave us access to their prequalification tools, which we used to assess availability of services when someone enquired
It would give results as green, orange or red. Most often it came up red.
We didn't think anything of this until we started getting phone calls. It turned out almost everyone who came up red would get a postcard from SWB within two weeks telling them about this wonderful new DSL service that had just become available in their area.
We refused to sell SWB DSL after that point on principle.
I've been a residential DSL user in Florida since April 2000 (Bellsouth). At installation, the company offered me what was available then: a bridged DSL connection using ethernet and dhcp. With a couple of minor exceptions, the link has been rock solid since the day they turned it on. (My downlink speeds hang in the 1.2Mb range...very fast)
This is in contrast to a large number of subscribers added to the system since, who have had to use PPPoE and USB-based DSL modems. Combined with sometimes abysmal on-site installations and questionable technical support, it's been less than fun for those people. Add on this the lack of support for Linux/FreeBSD/OpenBSD/similar systems (and even problems with Windows 2000 as well). It ain't been easy, esepcially for the less technically adept. Things are supposed to be improving, however...
I've heard rumors about a switch from bridged to PPPoE service throughout the area, but it hasn't materialized yet. In fact, you can still get a bridged setup if you're willing to pay for the external modem (or buy one) and the extra fee for a truck roll and installation on site.
The address assignment systems seems pretty fair: the dhcp server on their network does a renewal about every 12 hours. IPs don't change often, but it's not an issue for me.
I don't know if this will become an issue here (yet) as many of the independent DSL providers have gone the way of all flesh since the dotcom purges last year.
But, I still get nervous when another big bell does this kind of thing, as I fear it will give mine evil ideas.
Joe Dougherty, Florida, USA
The words I thought I brought, I left behind. So, never mind.
PPPoE requires a separate piece of software to run to establish the connection. WinPOET is one of them on Windows.
It doesn't allow static IPs, which is a pain.
While my system at home is a cable modem; my coworkers are having lots of problems with our corporate IPSec software if they run PPPoE.
PPPoE is acceptable for the majority of the unwashed masses. However, if you want to do anything really creative (and have an inkling of what you are doing) it starts to really get in the way.
-chill
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.